The present invention relates to apparatus for replenishing the supplies of filter rod sections in the magazines of machines which process filter rod sections, especially in the magazines of filter tipping machines wherein filter rod sections are assembled with rod-like tobacco-containing articles to form filter tipped cigars, cigarillos or cigarettes.
It is already known to deliver filter rod sections into the magazine of a filter tipping machine from a remote location by resorting to a pneumatic conveyor whose inlet receives filter rod sections from a suitable sender, which advances the filter rod sections toward the filter tipping machine by moving the filter rod sections axially, and which discharges filter rod sections seriatim into a suitable receiving unit serving to convert the axially advancing filter rod sections into a row wherein the filter rod sections move sideways on their way into the magazine. It is also known to provide or combine the receiving unit with a system of belts or other types of conveyors which forcibly introduce the filter rod sections into the magazine, preferably below the normal level of the upper surface of the supply of filter rod sections in the magazine. Reference may be had, for example, to commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. Re. 28,383 granted Apr. 8, 1975 to Rudszinat for an apparatus which converts a file of axially advancing filter rod sections into a row wherein the filter rod sections move sideways. The patented apparatus has a pair of endless belt conveyors or the like for forcibly introducing the filter rod sections of the thus obtained row into the magazine below the upper surface of the supply of filter rod sections in the magazine.
Apparatus for pneumatically transporting rod-shaped articles or tobacco shreds from a remote location of the locale of further processing are becoming increasingly popular in the tobacco processing industry. For example, it is known to discharge the output of a filter rod making machine into a suitable reservoir system wherein the filter rod sections (e.g., sections of six or eight times unit length) remain for a certain interval of time to ensure satisfactory curing of the filamentary filter material as well as complete or adequate setting of adhesive which is used to seal the wrapping material for the filaments (provided that the filter rod sections are of the type having discrete wrappers). The outlet of the reservoir system supplies filter rod sections to a pneumatic sender which propels the sections into several discrete pneumatic conveyors each serving to satisfy the requirements of a discrete filter tipping machine. Such automation of the transport of filter rod sections between the maker and the filter tipping machines renders it possible to install an entire battery of filter tipping machines at a location which is remote from the makers.
A drawback of presently known apparatus of the above outlined character is that the pneumatic senders, the pneumatic conveyors and/or the units which deliver filter rod sections from the outlets of the pneumatic conveyors to the magazines of the corresponding filter tipping or other filter processing machines require cleaning, inspection and/or repair at regular or irregular intervals. Malfunctioning of one such unit intermediate the reservoir system and the filter tipping machines is likely to necessitate stoppage of the corresponding processing machine for extended periods of time with attendant pronounced losses in output, especially in modern cigarette makers which can turn out many thousands of cigarettes per minute. As a rule, the delivery of filter rod sections from a filter rod maker or form a reservoir system of the filter tipping or other filter processing machines must be interrupted as a result of deformation or destruction (e.g., quashing) of filter rod sections in the pneumatic conveyors, in the pneumatic senders upstream of the pneumatic conveyors or in the units which transfer filter rod sections from the pneumatic conveyors into the magazines of the associated processing machines. Another common cause of frequent or reasonably frequent stoppages is the need for cleaning of the pneumatic conveyors and/or of the pneumatic senders which deliver filter rod sections into the pneumatic conveyors. Even though disturbances or malfunctions can develop in each and every part of an apparatus which delivers filter rod sections from a maker to one or more processing machines. they are most likely to occur in the pneumatic sender or senders as well as in the receiving units, i.e., immediately upstream and immediately downstream of the pneumatic conveyors. The magazine of each processing machine serves as a reservoir for temporary storage of a certain supply of filter rod sections so as to ensure that the processing machine need not be arrested in response to each and every (even very short-lasting) interruption of delivery of fresh filter rod sections to its magazine. In order to prevent accidental misalignment of filter rod sections which enter the magazine, or to reduce the likelihood of such misalignment, the receiving unit which transfers filter rod sections into the magazine proper, or the feeding means which immediately follows the receiving unit, is provided with the aforementioned belts or like means for forcibly introducing filter rod sections into the magazine below the normal level of the upper surface of the supply of filter rod sections in the magazine. Thus, each next-following filter rod section pushes the preceding section or sections into the interior of the magazine wherein the incoming sections displace the previously introduced sections with attendant raising of the upper surface of the accumulated supply. Such mode of introduction can also lead to malfunctions, especially since a single receiving unit must satisfy the needs of an entire processing machine, such as a modern high-speed filter tipping machine. This will be readily appreciated since the magazine should be relatively large so as to be capable of satisfying the requirements of a high-speed processing machine for a reasonable period of time in the event of a malfunction in the delivering or replenishing apparatus. This means that the incoming filter rod sections must displace a substantial pile of preveiously introduced sections with attendant likelihood of deformation of and/or other damage to the filter rod sections. Each damaged filter rod section can entail the making of as many as eight defective filter cigarettes which must be detected by a suitable testing unit and segregated from satisfactory filter cigarettes.
Thus, wherein the provision of a large magazine ensures that the processing machine can operate for a relatively long period of time in the absence of admission of fresh filter rod sections, the presently known replenishing apparatus for delivery of fresh filter rod sections into such magazines are not entirely satisfactory because the admission of filter rod sections at a single locus of a magazine is likely to result in damage to the incoming as well as to the previously admitted filter rod sections with attendant increase in the percentage of defective final products and losses in filter material as well as tobacco shreds. The output of a filter tipping machine cannot be reduced at will so as to allow for the utilization of relatively small magazines because this would render the machine uneconomical or much less economical and would prevent direct coupling of such machine with high-speed machines which process finished filter cigarettes, e.g., with machines which pack the cigarettes, which thereupon introduce cigarette packs into cartons, and which introduce cartons into boxes or other types of receptacles.